Learning-to-love
by Burgerainp
Summary: Agent 24 Shipping Agent Eight has been through hell. He saved the world and now has his hardest challenge yet: learning how to live and survive in Inkopolis. Cue the socially constipated Agent Three! With the help of Three, he will how to survive, and a bit extra on the side. Contains Swearing, innuendos and A precious octo bean All rights to Nintendo
1. Prologue

Before the metro

Agent 3 rolled behind a rock to take cover from the male octoling's shots. This was the first male of the species she had ever encountered, and the toughest adversary to date, Octavio excluded. This was only meant to be a reconnaissance mission, the Cap'n had gained some intel suggesting some weird scientific squit was going down in the Kamabo Coporation. "Get 'em kiddo!" Cap'n Cuttlefish cheered on from the sidelines. She enppgrimaced at him and snuck around the back of the boulder behind which she was hiding. In the process she snuck up behind the octoling clutching his octo shot. "Gotcha," she whispered, grinning in triumph, and jumped on him, surprised, he fell forward and his weapon flew from his hand. Panting, Three held her weapon to his cranium and calmly said "Ready to die?" Slowly, the boy turned his head to face her, and it was full of hatred, etched into every detail of his face. He spat at her, Three just remained stony faced. The octoling had no goggles, so all that he was doing was of his own accord, no Octavio to use as an excuse for this guy. But before Three could pull the trigger she heard thump from behind and she turned to see the Cap'n collapse, then she felt a blow to her cranium and everything went dark.

End of the first metro line

Iso padre looked down at the mem cakes that Agent Eight had collected from the metro line. "Wow, a full set? I'm impressed." Eight just nodded at him. "Here," Padre said, pulling a stack of books out of his suitcase, "I've had these as long as I can remember, and I have all of them memorised by now, maybe what you learn from them can help you when you reach the promised land." Eight nodded took the books. He walked over to Cap'n cuttlefish and took the book on the top of the stack. Sitting down he crossed his legs and opened the first page of the first book. Luckily, he could still remember how to read.

The Blender

The ceiling crashed open and the figure of Agent Three fell towards the blender. She collided with it, smashing to pieces, freeing Eight and the Cap'n and crushing that darned phone in the process. Eight picked himself of the floor and walked over to the unconscious form of Three. He crouched down beside her and checked her pulse. She was alive. He flipped her over and checked her for any injuries. He found none, and before he could check any further he heard a husky voice call out "A little help here please." He spun on his heel to see the Cap'n stuck under a piece of blender and ran to help.

After Agent Three fight

Eight collapsed on the elevator floor, next to the, once again, unconscious form of Agent Three. His chest rose a fell heavily as the elevator slowly rose to what he had been fighting for for so long. The elevator jarred to a stop in front of a staircase leading to a manhole cover, and Eight stood up, picked up Three in a bridal style. He clambered up the stair case and pushed away the manhole, then slowly climbed out, and took in the fresh air, smiling for the first time since he had entered the metro.

Meanwhile on the helicopter

"Oh I am so taking a photo of this!" Pearl exclaimed photographing Three being carried by Eight on the surface. "This is great teasing material!"

"Pearlie, that's mean!" Marina scolded.

"I know!" Pearl laughed evilly, "but I don't care!"


	2. Sunset

10 seconds until Tartar fired his laser, one Hyperbomb yet to detonate. Eight tuned into the hyperbombs frequency, it was coming from the top of the statue's head. No time to waste then.

9...

Eight began swimming to the right side of the statue.

8...

He reached the highest point of the right side.

7...

He aimed his Octo-Shot at the grapplink.

6...

He steadied his arm.

5...

He fired a single, precise shot.

4...

His ink hit the grapplink and his form sped towards it.

3...

Eight landed skilfully on the ink rail.

2...

He aimed his Octo-Shot as he sped towards the final Hyperbomb.

1...

He fired. His ink sped towards the final Hyperbomb and with less than a second until full charge remaining, the Hyperbomb went off, preventing any further power from entering the statue. Smirking in triumph Eight allowed himself to fall backward, of the statue.He fell downwards, towards the sea, and landed momentarily on the platform beneath one of the smaller helicopters. The Octoling super-jumped back to the copter the others were on and skidded to a halt, ready to fight even more if he needed to. Marina began frantically typing on her laptop, "Energy readings don't indicate a full charge, but it looks like its going to fire anyway!" She declared in a voice laced with panic and despair. "Number 10,008..." Tartar droned over the humongous speakers on the statues laurel wreath "No test subject has worked so hard to foil my plans... But now you will blend into... the perfect world the professor envisioned!" He laughed mechanically "Goodbye 10,008. Farewell to you and that worthless cesspool of a city..." he said, and the statues beam began readying to fire.

Eight scowled and was preparing to super-jump back to the statue to prevent Tartar, when Pearl leaped down from the copter above onto the platform beside him. "Great work, Eight-I got it from here!" She said patting Eight on the shoulder and turning to face the statue. "VOCAL CHORDS READY!" She exclaimed. "AYO STATUE!" Pearl yelled pointing her fingers to the sky, her hair beginning to glow as a special charged up. Pearl flipped a huge Killer Wail out of no-where,though it was rather unique. The Killer Wail had a huge version of her crown, and an Off The Hook keychain hanging off it. The statue blasted it laser off, and Pearl lent forward, and yelled into the Killer Wail's microphone "Boo-YAAAAAAHHHHHH!" A huge pink torrent of pure sound blasted from the end of the Killer Wail and hurtled towards the swiftly approaching beam from Tartar's statue. The two met in the middle in a furious battle of power, one second one was in a weaker, more vulnerable state, the next the other beam was in the weaker state, then, just as it looked like the statues beam was gonna completely destroy the Killer Wail, the Wail blasted through the green beam and into the statue not destroying it, but rendering it useless. As the statue sank, Tartar spoke his final words " Professor... Our reunion beckons..." And with that the giant statue sank into the depths of the sea.

Everything seemed to go silent, as eight looked around at everyone. They were all smiling and locking each other in tight embraces, he thought he saw Marina crying from relief. He crouched down beside the stirring figure of Agent 3. She slowly blinked and looked around. Eight rested his head on his hand and smiled at Three admiringly. She stood up wobbling, and swaying in the breeze. She lost her balance and fell, and the world start moving again for Eight.

He jumped to his feet and caught Three before she fell and hurt herself even more. She looked up at him, to see who dared try to help her, Agent Three! She could handle herslef thank you very much. She was greeted by the face of Agent Eight, an octoling. His head illuminated from behind by the falling sun, his mohawk tentacle drooping slightly and a concerned look donned his face, and in that moment, he looked perfect to Three. Of course Three would never admit this. A light dusting of red coated her cheeks. They stayed in that position for a few seconds before Eight smiled and helped Three into a sitting position on the edge of the platform. She rubbed the back of her head. "T-thanks," she muttered. _THE HELL! DID I JUST FUCKING STUTTER??? _Yelled the voice in her head. Ordinarily Three was a calm headed, down to Earth individual, she does NOT stutter. Eight gave her a thumbs up. Three nodded, then grimaced and pulled her hand from behind her head. She was met with the sight of green ink. A look of worry appeared on Eight's face. He held up a single finger and pulled his pack of his back and opened it. Reaching in, he extracted a large plaster and he shuffled around to behind Three. "That's really not necessary!" She said shaking her hands, "I'm can handle my-". Three was cut off by Eight placing a finger on her mouth to silence her protests. The dusting of red returned. _WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME???_ Carefully he pulled away and applied the plaster to a small hole in Three's tentacles, ignoring the slight sting coming from contact of the green ink.

He finished up and wandered back to sit beside Three. "U-um," Three stuttered. There it was again! She shook her head and steadied her voice. She extended a hand to Eight "I'm Agent 3, of the New Squidbeak Splatoon" Eight looked at her, closing his eyes and tilting his head slightly whilst grinning, causing Three's face to go slightly pink and she pulled back her hand so she could cover her blush. "A-and you are?" She asked him crossing her arms and tilting her own head. The octoling opened up his eyes and held up 8 fingers up for Three to see. "Eight? Is that your name?" Three questioned. Eight nodded and Three looked at him oddly. "You don't speak much do you?" She asked. The octoling merely shook his head and turned to face the sunset. Three turned her head to the sunset as well as well, but soon turned her head back to Eight. His face was lit up by the setting sun, and he had a look of wonder upon it. She took the time to take in every detail about him, his blue eyes, the swirling markings around them and his, soft, enticing li- Three turned a violent shade of crimson as shook her head._ I did NOT just think that! Nope. Didn't happen! _She thought holding her head in her hands. _What is going on with me today?_

"YO!" A high pitch screech sounded from behind them, and Eight only just began to turn when the small pink figure of Pearl jumped on him, embracing him "Epic job yo! You just saved us all from becoming a bunch of messed up slime!" Eight just tensed up and then relaxed, slowly returning the hug. Three just watched on expressionlessly, yet felt, something in their gut gnawing at her. Pearl pulled away and grinned stupidly at Eight. Marina wandered over with the Cap'n and they all sat or stood and stared into the sunset, happy to be able to see it for another day, and, in Eight's case, full of wonder and hope for the future.


	3. Afterparty

The Cap'n gave directions on how to get the helicopter to the Squidbeak Splatoon cabin, without use of the sewer grate. Marina called to all the of the accompanying helicopters, telling them to go home, and the group set of towards Octo Canyon.

~About 15 minutes later~

For years, Marie teased and poked fun at Callie, live in front of thousands of people. Callie grew an evil grin, oh was revenge gonna be oh so sweet. From beside her she heaved up a massive book titled 'The unabridged Agent 4 Factopedia'. Callie heaved it open to a page marked with a squid sisters book mark, and snapped her fingers at the chatting Four and Marie to grab their attention. "Y'know something Four? Marie has a very interesting diary entry in the Agent 4 Factopedia. Its aaaaaaall about you!" Callie said, smirking at the inkling before her "Want to hear it?" Marie peered over her shoulder to see what entry she was talking about, and upon seeing it turned bright red, kind of like a tomato. "Hahaha," said Marie nervously as she desperately tried to snatch the Factopedia from Callie, who just moved it out of her reach,"v-very funny C-callie, now g-give me the book!" Callie just laughed and opened her mouth to begin reading to a bemused Agent 4 stood in front of them with her dualies. She was drowned out by a helicopter above. All three of the Agents peered up, turning white from the fact someone had found their headquarters. A small inkling peered over the edge "YO!" They screeched. Marie pulled out her Charger and aimed at the inkling, but before she shot a familiar voice called out: "STOP!" Marie lowered her charger and peered up again. Looking down was her grandfather: Cap'n Cuttlefish. "GRAMPS?" She called up.

After the helicopter had landed, and the Cap'n had explained everything, Marie calmed down and went into the cabin to get some food for everyone, or she tried but was stopped by Agent 8, who was grinning like a madman. "Um, yes?" Marie asked skeptically, still unsure if she could trust this octoling. The Cap'n just chuckled and waddled on over. "I do believe," he wheezed out, "That Eight here is a fan, after all, the Calamari Inkantation sort of set him free from being a mindless killing machine." Eight nodded furiously and bowed before Marie. "Awwwwww," a voice from behind them cooed. The trio turned to see Callie clutching her hands together. She ran at Eight and embraced him in a tight hug, to which he just froze. He was being hugged by a squid sister. An ACTUAL squid sister. "I like him!" Callie cooed pulling away and booping the octolings nose, "he's sweet!" At this point Eight had froze, completely awestruck. Without warning, he transformed into an octopus and just lay on the ground. "Is he ok?" Marie whispered to her grandfather.

"Not sure," he replied, "just put him on the wall over there, I'm sure he'll recover in time."

After that, everything went smoothly, Agent Three caught up with Callie and Marie, who introduced her to Agent Four, she made the mistake of embracing her, and she shoved Four on the floor, put a foot to her throat and demanded an explanation. The Cap'n introduced them all to Marina and Pearl, and officially made them Agents 5 and 6. During all this, Eight was just sat cross legged on the wall at the side watching them all catch up. He smiled, happy to be free of all the tests, but also because everyone was having so much fun, he feel into a sort of peaceful trance, as he watched them all laugh and chat. He was broken out of his trance when a figure walked up in front of him. He looked up to see Three looking down at him, holding a cup of, some brown liquid. "You good?" She asked looking as neutral as ever. Eight nodded and smiled as Three hopped onto the wall beside him. "Want some Cola?" Three asked, offering him a cup. He just looked at her oddly. "Oh, right," the inkling said "you don't know what that is. Here." She passed him a cup "You drink it, like this," Three took a sip of her drink. Eight looked away from her and peered down at the liquid in front of him suspiciously. "C'mon," Three said starting to get annoyed "I'm not trying to fu- fricking poison you." The octoling just shrugged and took of sip of his drink. Stars appeared in his eyes as he was blown away by this exotic taste, he had never had anything like this before. He downed the entire cup and then stared at it in wonder. Three giggled and Eight looked at her sheepishly. "I'm guessing you liked it?" She questioned. Then Three realised. _hOlY sQuIt dId I jUsT gIgGlE_. Eight brought his clenched hands up in front of him and nodded furiously, the stars in his eyes returning. Three just giggled again, and stared towards Inkopolis. Eight chose to use this time to take in every detail about her, and it was all rather standard. Except the eyes. The inkling girl had a sad look in her eyes, a look of loneliness and despondency. Even with that, Eight thought she was practically perfect, she was the coolest person he knew and really seemed to care for him and everyone else around her, despite her tough girl facade.

"YO!" Pearl hollered balancing on top of the bench to give her extra height, "LISTEN UP PEEPS." Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked towards Pearl. "AIGHT, I KNOW ITS REALLY EPIC AND ALL THAT THE WORLD IS STILL GOING ON, BUT WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHATS HAPPENING WITH EIGHT, YO!" Pearl yelled. Eight looked up at the mention of his name, and Marina nodded in agreement. "What do you mean by that?" Marie asked, shooting a dirty look at Eight, however this did not go unnoticed by a certain yellow haired agent. "Lighten up Mar! The kid just saved our hides, you need to give him a chance!" Agent 4 said grinning and wrapping her arm around Marie, who just turned slightly pink and just looked to the side pouting. "Um," said Marina "I think what Pearlie meant by that is where is he gonna stay?" Pearl nodded at Marina who just smiled weakly and looked back at her drink.

Three was bout to say something when she was cut off by- "Don't you guys live in a mansion?" Four questioned Pearl. Her eyes lit up and she turned to Marina. "Yellow kid here is right yo! We could totally give him one of the rooms in the mansion!" Marina nodded and smiled. She turned to Eight and said "How does that sound Eight? Want to come live with us?" Eight looked at Marina, then to Pearl. He thought of how much they helped him in the metro, and of how kind they were. He thought of how Marina and him could engineer nerd out together, and of how Pearl could show him how to operate in this world. He looked back, grinning ear to ear, at Marina, who was waiting for his response. And shook his head no.

"What?" Pearl exclaimed "You're kidding right?". Eight just shook his head once more, much to the bewilderment of everyone. Three just looked at him in confusion. He was being offered a life of luxury and comfort, truly befitting of someone who saved the world, why on earth would he turn it down? And then the octoling who turned down the perfect life turned to face her. He smiled, and pointed his finger at her.


	4. Welcome-to-Inkopolis

"Huh?" Three said. Eight just pointed at her again, and then looked at Marina.

"You want to live with Three?" Marina said slowly, taking this in. Eight nodded and put down his hand. "Yo," Pearl said walking over to Eight, she tried to put her hand on his shoulder but couldn't reach, so Eight jumped of the wall and crouched down so she could, "You do realise that you're choosing regular, working civilian life this way right?" Eight nodded "and you're choosing THIS, over the life of luxury?" Once more Eight nodded. Pearl removed her hand from his shoulder "Aight, yo, but you're crazy." Pearl walked away and shooed the other agents away, aside from Marina and Three. "Shows over folks! Keep moving!".

Marina turned to Three. "Is this ok with you? I don't want to cause any inconvenience." Marina asked worriedly. Eight looked at Three making puppy dog eyes. She turned to him, saw him making the face. Crap, thats cute. Three sighed . "It's fine," She said "I have a sofa bed he can use." Eight beamed, jumped up and hugged Three, who gained a slightly red tint. She refused to return the hug, but didn't push him off. Pearl just shook her head in disbelief. "Yo," Pearl said to Marina "He's choosing a sofa bed over us, he lost his mind down there!" Marina just giggled and shook her head. "Its what he wants! Plus, I have a feeling Three could use some more happiness in her life."

~20 minutes later~

Three bid farewell to everyone, and changed into the clothes she had literally left there a month and a half ago, that now smelt slightly musty on top of smelling of ink and sweat. She also changed back to her natural ink colour.

She donned A pair of multicoloured trainers that were stained by different ink colours and looked huge on her, a jersey that was pink and yellow (also stained with colours and too big), a green Jellyvaders cap, and her Mantle was orange that slowly got darker towards the tips. "C'mon Eight!" She called out dryly. Eight pilled away from a hug with a teary eyed Marina, and ran over to Three. He waved to Marina who, tearily, waved back clutching handkerchief in her waving hand. "Follow me," Three commanded, and walked over to the grate that led to Inkopolis. She turned into her squid form and hopped in. Eight took one last look around, then transformed and followed her.

Three came out the other side and looked around the square. Everywhere was shut due to how late it was, and the only noise came from the dripping drainpipe over by grizzco. Three turned to face the grate to see if Eight had followed, when suddenly he flew out the grate, transformed mid air and ,arms flailing, collided with Three. She fell backwards and landed on the floor with a thump. Groaning she looked up to see Agent Eight lying on top of her. Blushing furiously, she pushed him off and stood up in a hurry. Eight just rubbed his head and pulled himself up to a cross legged position, sheepishly grinning at Three. She glared at him. "You're a complete klutz." she told him, offering him a hand to help him up. Eight took her hand and, instead of pulling himself up, he pulled Three down onto his lap. He grinned at the recovering Three and booped her nose. She turned red and looked away from him to hide it. Eight tried to get her attention, but she ignored him, so he stood up and picked her up. "H-hey!" Three exclaimed turning an even darker shade of crimson, "P-put me d-down! I dem-m-mand respect!" This was unjust! How dare he! Three was to be respected! Eight just grinned and began to spin around and around. Three clutched onto his shirt not wanting to go flying and held on for dear life. After about 20 seconds he stopped spinning and sniggered. Three just glared at him and started lightly hitting his chest.

Eventually Eight put her down and she led him back to her apartment block. Eight was fascinated with the concept of a lift with buttons that led to multiple floors, and clicked all of them, much to Three's dismay as she lived on the 8th floor. Eventually they reached the floor and three grabbed Eights shirt sleeve and pulled him out the elevator. She led him along to her apartment. "Here we are," she yawned, letting go of his sleeve and gesturing to the door, "24 Ship apartment Block, my humble abode." With that she opened the door and Eight walked inside.

Three's home wasn't particularly impressive, as it was just a small kitchen, a living room ,with a small wall mounted tv, book case and sofa, and a bedroom where Three's bed and desk were. It was kinda messy, with litter scattered around and a few t-shirts strewn across the floor. Eight looked around in wonder. In comparison to the train, this was astounding and looked like the life of luxury Pearl claimed she had. "Sorry its a bit messy," Three said, gesturing towards some empty pizza boxes and half full cans, "lemme just go grab you a blanket and pillow, just sit yourself down on the sofa." With that Three shoved her hands in her pockets and slouched off to her room to fetch a blanket and some pillows. Eight looked around in wonder as he walked over to the sofa and sat down. Eights mouth dropped open. Never in his life (that he could remember) had he felt anything so comfortable. He lay down on the sofa and closed his eyes, feeling like he was in heaven.

Three came back into the room holding pillows and a blanket, "I found the pil-" she stopped as she saw Eight sleeping peacefully on the sofa, a look of pure bliss on his face. She smiled and lay the blanket over him, and put the pillows beside him. "G'night Eight," she whispered, "and welcome to Inkopolis."


	5. Dipsquits-and-shopping

It was around 6:40 the next day when Agent Eight woke up. He sat up mechanically, and went to reach for his octo shots to do more tests. He realised he wasn't on the metro when he didn't find any octo shot where it usually was, and so looked around to gather his bearings. The octoling remembered where he was and smiled, he was free. Standing up, he stretched and looked around for Three. Not seeing her, he went to find her somewhere in the apartment. He opened one of the doors, and found himself stepping into her room, only to see her sleeping in a double bed, wearing pink pyjamas with a pattern of different coloured squids on it. Eight looked around the room. The walls were covered in all sorts of posters and pictures, pictures of family and the NSS, and her posters were mainly of the squid sisters but a few movie posters were visible and some video game ones too. Eights eyes lingered on the peaceful form of Agent Three, who was curled up in a ball under the duvets with her mantle up in a bun. Thinking she looked comfy and warm, Eight walked over to her bed and lifted up the duvet. He clambered in the bed next to her, rested his forehead against hers and fell back asleep.

~2 hours later~

Three began to stir from her sleep and slowly opened her eyes. In front of her eyes was the sleeping face of Eight. Three slowly closed her eyelids again, before opening them wide as she realised. Eight was sleeping in the same bed as her, his forehead against hers, and he was breathing lightly on her! Turning crimson Three shoved him off the bed. Eight fell off of the bed waking up upon impact with the ground. He sat up and looked up at a blushing mess of an inkling sat on the bed above him. "W-what the hell Eight?!?" She yelled, "W-why w-w-were y-you in m-my bed?" Eight looked at her and tried to figure out what he had done wrong. A figurative lightbulb appeared above his head as he ran to the lounge. "H-Hey!" Three yelled after him "Get b-back here! We're n-not done talking!" He came back in the room holding a dictionary. "Why have yo-" once again Three was silenced by Eight putting a finger on her lips. He flipped through the dictionary until he reached W. Then pointed at a word and showed it to Three. "Warm..." She muttered, "ok Eight, I don't how things worked where you came from, but you can't just bloody get in the bed with me cause it looks warm!" Eight tilted his head to the side in confusion as if to say 'Why not?'. "J-just don't do it again," Three sighed, "or else." She added with a glare.

Three shooed him into the kitchen and made them both a bowl of Squid puffs. She sat down at the table and gestured lazily for Eight to sit opposite her. He sat down and tentatively put a spoonful of cereal into his mouth, and (lo and behold) the stars returned to his eyes. Three chuckled at him as he wolfed down all his cereal. "So," Three began, Eight looked up at her with stuffed cheeks, "what do you wanna do today?" Eight just shrugged and kept on eating his puffs. "Clothes shopping?" Three suggested, "you must be tired of wearing that outfit." Eight nodded and so Three went to get dressed as Eight waited by the door, eating another bowl of puffs.

~About 20 minutes later~

Three and Eight arrived in the square and it was roaring with life. Inklings sat and ate, stood around chatting or were stood preparing weapons for the various modes at the tower. As Eight walked into the plaza, a few Inklings noticed him and started whispering furiously to anyone nearby.

"What is that?"

"Why is that... Thing even Here? Does he not realise he's not welcome?"

"What is an octoling doing HERE?"

"Hey guys, lets go, we don't know what that, monster, may do"

Eight seemed oblivious to these whispers as he stared around the Plaza in wonder, taking in all the bright scenery and marvelling at every little detail. However, Three heard each of these spiteful whispers, and grew more, and more ticked off every second. After a few minutes she couldn't take it and grabbed Eights hand. He looked down in surprise as Three dragged him faster, along towards Ye Olde Clothe Shoppe. She stormed in and slammed the door behind them, muttering curses and insults. A rather dapper jelly walked up to the duo, "Ah, greeting Mistress Katylin, prithee is this thy romantic partner accompanying thee?" Three turned bright red at this and wrenched her hand from Eight's grip. "No!" She blurted out, "That is N-NOT what is going on here!" She said trying to cover her blush up and failing. "Ah, I see-eth, my humblest apologies for mine own mistake ma'am." Jelfonzo said bowing. Three calmed down and put down her hands.

"Its fine'," she lied "and I thought I told you to cut out all the ma'am crap. Anyway, we're here to buy some clothes for my FRIEND here." Jelfonzo bowed and led them round the store.

Thanking Jelfonzo, Three lead Eight of the store, holding a bag with some assorted options for her octoling companion. Eight tapped Three on the shoulder and she turned around to face him. "Yeah Eight?" She said. The octoling pointed back in the store at Jelfonzo, then at Three. Three just stared at him blankly. The octoling raised his hands in frustration. He jabbed a finger at Jelfonzo, then to his mouth, then at Three, then he put up Three fingers and shook his head. "Jelfonzo mouth..." Eight shook his head "Jelfonzo you?" Another shake "Jelfonzo said?" Eight nodded. "Jelfonzo said me no Three?" Eight once again nodded. Muttering to herself, Three repeated the phrase,"Jelfonzo said me no three... OH!" She exclaimed growing a dark expression "You mean when he called me Katylin?" Eight nodded. "Thats my real name, Eight. You ever use that isntead of Three, and I'll kill you!" She said smiling darkly. Eight just looked at her, unimpressed by her threat, a confused look on his face. Three just shook her head, "Three's not my actual name you squidiot! Its just my Agent number." Embarrassed, Eight just turned away blushing slightly.

Three and Eight went to the other two clothing stores in the plaza, before Three turned to go home. "C'mon Eight! Lets go home and you can try on some of these clothes, and I can go to sleep" Three called and began to walk. She made about four steps before she realised Eight wasn't following. Panicking she spun around looking for him, before spotting him. He was stood at the window for Sheldon's store, looking at the octobrush on display. Three let out a sigh of relief before trotting back on over to him. "Eight," she sighed "Lets go!" Eight just looked at her and pointed at the Octobrush. "No Eight! Home, sleep relax!" Eight just made his puppy dog eyes and Three tried to resist, but only lasted a few seconds. Sighing Three opened the door to the store, Eight's face lit up and he ran inside, a defeated Three tailing behind him.

Sheldon was polishing a ballpoint splatling when he heard the telltale 'ding' of someone opening the store door. turned to see who had entered his store, and smiled upon seeing Three. "Ah!" He exclaimed hopping down from behind the counter, "Katie! Lovely to see you, what can I do for you today?" Sheldon said rubbing his hands together and grinning, ignoring the death glare from Three. Three sighed, "Hiya shel." She said knowing he hated the nickname," I wanted to buy the Octobrush in the window for my friend here," Three said pointing to Eight. Sheldon took one look at Eight and turned white, "b-b-b-but h-he's an-n o-octoling!" He stammered slowly backing away. Eight just looked at him in confusion, not understanding why the small man was so scared of him. "He's cool Sheldon," Three sighed. "And he won't h-hurt me?" Sheldon asked regaining his composure. Three just shook her head. Sheldon's smile instantly returned and he ran over to grab the octobrush from the window display. "In that case," Sheldon said, grunting as he pulled the octobrush from the display and handed it to Eight, "lemme tell you about this beaut!"

"Sheldon, thats really no-" Three was once again cut off by Eights finger on her lips, blushing she muttered (rather pathetically) "stop doing that."

Sheldon ranted on for 20 minutes, whilst Eight listened intently and soaked up very detail, and Three leaned against the wall. They purchased the brush and headed out of the store. "Finally!" Three held her bag filled hand up in the air in triumph, "Time to go home!" Eight just nodded observing the brush in his hands and twirling it around. The duo made their way back to the apartment only stopping so Three could buy some ready meals for dinner, and so they could get some sandwiches for lunch (Three had a cheese sandwich, and Eight had a Pastrami and cheddar baguette, that took him all of 20 seconds to consume.). They made it back at about 3:24, and Three practically collapsed on the sofa, letting out a giant huff.

About twenty minutes later, Three sat up and looked at Eight who was sat beside her. "Want to try on some of the clothes?" She asked him. He nodded, unzipped his leather shirt he was currently wearing and was in the process of taking it off when Three turned bright red and covered her eyes. "Not in front of me you dolt!" She exclaimed as she stood up and shoved him in the bathroom. Three slumped against the door and let out a groan. "Don't you know anything on how to act around other people?" Three asked through the door, which was opened by a shirtless Agent Eight whom just shook his head. Three (who had fallen on the floor when the door was opened) turned red again and sat up. "Holy squidding heck Eight! You can't just be shirtless in front of people!" Eight just nodded and shut the door again. "Nothing?" Three mumbled, "guess I'll have to teach him."


	6. Three,exe-has-stopped-working

Three was sat on the couch staring at the ceiling, waiting for Eight to come out the bathroom. Behind her a door clicked and she spun around to see what her companion was wearing. He peeked his head out of the door nervously, reluctant to come out. "For gods sake Eight just walk through the door!" Three exclaimed. Eight stepped out.

He was wearing a leather jacket and white shirt combo, along with a tacky silver watch. This was accompanied with black slim jeans and a pair of purple converses. He had even changed his ink colour to black. Three just stared as Eight awkwardly shuffled side to side. _Ok_ thought Three _First of all,WHY THE HECK DOES THE PRECIOUS OCTOBEAN LOOK SO GOOD AS AN EMO?? Second of all WHEN THE FUCK DID HE BECOME A PRECIOUS OCTOBEAN???_

"Wow," she breathed. Three was blown by how amazing he looked. Although she was brought back to reality when Eight waved his hand in front of her face. Her face slightly red she looked up . "Sorry about that," Three chuckled nervously, hoping he didn't notice her staring, rubbing the back of her head, " I zoned out. You look ok I guess" Eight beamed at her, he had gotten a semi-complement! His smile could have melted even the most frozen and unfeeling heart. Three motioned for him to sit down next to her, and so he did. "Right," she began, "Do you really not know anything of how life works up here?" Eight just shook his head, much to her dismay. "Right then, we better start with the basics: Introductions." The octoling just tilted his head in confusion. Three looked at him in disbelief, "Introductions? Hellos? Greetings?" Eights face lit up at the last one and he pointed to himself, indicating he knew how to do it, and Three let out a sigh of relief, "Thank god you at LEAST know to greet someone," she said "Now, demonstrate." The boy nodded and scooted closer to Three. Three furrowed her brow, "What are you-" Three was cut off by her lips being met with Eights. She turned crimson and completely froze. Eight pulled away and beamed at the frozen tomato of a girl in front of him, convinced he had done it right. Three didn't move. A frown appeared on the Octoling's face as he waved his hand in front of Three. She turned into a squid and stayed still, lying on the couch.

Agent Four had been having a laid back, and all around relaxing day so far. Marie and Callie were out doing an interview so she was on Octavio guard duty, but she didn't mind. The inkling just got to sit down and read, only casting the occasional glance to Octavio who just sat glaring at her behind the confines of his snow globe prison. Four was interrupted from reading when a hysterical Agent Eight burst through the sewer grate. "Hiya Eight!" Four said looking up, "Nice outfit, is I-" Four stopped talking when she saw that the octoling was panting and making frantic hand gestures. "What?" Four asked confusedly. Eight groaned and grabbed Four's hand running towards the sewer grate.

Eight dragged a confused and disoriented Agent Four all the way back to Three's apartment, where he let go of her hand to fish the key out of his pocket. "Is something up with Three?" Four asked between pants. Eight nodded vigorously and pushed open the door. Four rushed in and looked around. "Where is she?" She asked anxiously, fearing the worst for his colleague. Eight pointed at the sofa and Four rushed over to see...

Agent Three

Curled up

Bright red

and in her squid form.

"Three?" Four said tentatively. No response. She poked her. No response. Eight peered over his shoulder worriedly. "What happened?" Four asked turning to Eight. Eight held up a finger and swung around. He grabbed his backpack from the ground and started pulling everything out. Mem cakes littered the floor, weapon cleaning supplies soon joined it and a handful of books until... Eight rose up triumphantly holding a book. He spun around to show Four but...

Three was stood there,

Holding a roller.

She was breathing heavily and staring at the spot where Four just was. Yellow ink covered the surrounding area, and Eight had a pretty good idea of what had happened. "I-If you e-ever," rasped Three, "tell a-anyone about t-this," She looked up at Eight red-faced and flustered, "Y-you'll r-regret it." Eight couldn't take her seriously and snorted. So she punched him. In the face. The octoling fell to the ground unconscious, and the book in his hand fell to the floor. Three stepped over Eight's unconscious form and picked it up, the book was titled "A lonely squids tale". She flicked through the book, it was some crappy romance novel about some squids, but Eight had obviously taken its word as the holy bible and thought this was everyone acted. Three let out a sigh and looked down at the slumped form of Eight. She was NOT explaining romance to him.

Four respawned at the cabin respawn pad. "Rude," she muttered rubbing the back of her head where phantom roller pain lingered. "Ha!" Rasped Octavio from his globe. Four grabbed a large tarpaulin a threw it over Octavio's globe. "Ha." She mimicked smugly.


	7. Mc-Teach-is-in-the-building!

Eight woke up in the back of a car. That might sound bad, but it was just Three's car, so its cool. He sat up and rubbed his head which hurt worse than the headache he got from the matching test back on the metro. Three was sat in the drivers seat, driving him... somewhere. Eight tapped her on the shoulder and she jerked away in surprise. "Oh! Eight, you're awake!" She said calming down. Eight just nodded wearily and looked out the window, they appeared to be pulling up to some form of big white building. Three parked the car and opened Eight's door, who stepped out the car gingerly. "Follow," was all Three said as she set off at a brisk pace towards two large doors. Eight tagged behind and caught as Three hammered on the door. They were almost instantly flung open by...

"Marina!" Said Three grinning, "Just the gal I was looking for." She ran behind Eight and pushed him forward. "Explain the whole romance shindig to this bugger for me? Thanks, be back at 12:00!" With that Three ran back to her car and drove off.

Marina invited Eight in and sat him down. "Tea?" She asked politely. Eight shook his head. "Ok. Well. Romance..." Marina began. "YO!" A giant torrent of sound yelled from the top of the staircase. Both the octolings turned to see the short Figure of Pearl whiz down the banister. "EIGHT!!" She yelled running up flinging her arms around him, "WHAT BRINGS YOU HERE?" Eight was slowly going deaf from Pearl.

"Pearlie," Marina scolded, "You'll deafen the poor boy! Indoor voice! And Three just dropped him off." Pearl grinned at Marina.

"Sos Rina!" She said at an almost normal level of volume, "Why did Three drop him off?"

"Apparently," Marina began, "Three is incapable as a teacher, and needs us to explain the concept of romance to Eight." Pearl burst out laughing.

"That's just the sort of thing an emotionally constipated idiot like Three would do!" Pearl spoke between chuckles. Marina and Eight looked at her in confusion.

After a while Pearl calmed down and sat beside Marina. "Aight yo," Pearl began "Mc Teach in the house!" Eight face palmed and Marina giggled. "Aight, so first of all do you know what a kiss is?" Eight shook his head. "Well, allow me to demonstrate!" With that Pearl stood up on the sofa, grabbed either side of Marina's face and pulling into a kiss. Marina tensed up at first not expecting her girlfriend to just grab her and kiss her with no warning, but she soon relaxed and returned the kiss. Marina's hands drifted down to Pearls hips as she pulled her closer in. Pearl smiled and purred at the sudden action. Eight just watched this, both fascinated and grossed out simultaneously. They pulled apart panting. "Aight," panted Pearl, "THAT, is called kissing. You only do that with your significant other, someone you want to be intimate with." Realisation dawned on Eight's face as he realised why Three said to never speak of his greeting. "Anywho," Pearl continued, "next part of love is dates! Now basically..."

~One long explanation of all inkling romance aspects later~

"Get it now yo?" Mc Teach asked Eight. Slowly he nodded, not really understanding all of it, but not wanting to listen anymore, as it made him uncomfortable. "Sweet! Why did you need to know this though?" Pearl asked. Eight turned slightly red and looked away shrugging, to which Pearl and Marina shared a suspicous look. Somebody hammered on the door and Eight hopped up and waved at Marina and Pearl, who waved back. "Bye Eight! And good luck!" Marina called. "Yeh bucko! Knock 'em dead!" Pearl chimed in. He ran to the door and opened it. Three was stood there and looked past Eight. "Thanks guys!" She called out and grabbed Eight by the sleeve pulling him to the car.

The car ride was silent and Three didn't say anything as she let them into the apartment. Eight was shuffling awkwardly and staring at Three, who noticed and got really ticked off. "What?" She yelled. Eight cringed back, and Three's expression softened. "Look Eight," she said putting a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry, yesterday you just, y'know, and I- gah!" She threw her hands up in frustration. "Bloomin' emotiony talk is so fricking hard!" She moaned sitting down and sinking into the sofa, closing her eyes. Eight sat next to her and patted her head. She let out a happy purring-esqe noise and pushed against his hand, before opening her eyes and turning red. "Um, I uh u-um, I-I." She tried to form an excuse. Eight just smiled at her, and she smiled nervously back.

Three spent the day teaching Eight the basics of life: Greetings, manners and how money worked. Eight was very eager to learn and seemed to soaked up all the knowledge. At 19:00 Three decided to stop. "Right," she said, "that's enough for one day. Lets watch a movie!" She grabbed a box full of DVD's and placed it next to Eight. "Pick one." She commanded. Eight began sifting through the box, looking at all the different covers and eventually chose one titled Squightmares. It was a horror movie Three had got from Marie a few Christmas's ago. "Hahaha," Three chuckled nervously, "n-not that one." Eight grinned from Ear to ear. Three was scared. "Hey!" She growled "Why are you grinning?" Eight pulled out his dictionary and flipped to S. He pointed to the word scared. "I am not!" Agent Three denied, "I'll prove it!" She snatched the DVD from Eight and put it in.

They were thirty minutes in, and Three was scared out of her mind. Three was smart and tough, but she was terrified of horror movies, something about them just broke her usual character. Eight sat staring at the TV, unamused. A jumpscare came up and Three buried her face in Eights arm. He looked down at her, surprised. "I-I'm not s-scared!" She said in denial, slightly pink. Another jumpscare, Three tightened her grip on Eights arm and Eight just smiled smugly at her. She looked up at him "S-stop! I'm j-just c-cold!" She stuttered. Eight just turned back to the movie shaking his head. Three fell asleep about an hour into the movie and Eight turned it off. He picked her up and carried her to bed placing her down and tucking her in. Smiling he brushed her tentacles out of her face, he stood for a moment admiring her, his hero and best friend, then he bent down and kissed her forehead before exiting the room.


	8. Coffee-and-shopping

Three was not the safest person in the world. She was always trying to move through life quickly, and as a result sometimes her actions were... Reckless. She would often make mildly illegal superjumps and run across the road before the little squid went green. It usually worked out fine, and she had only been hit by a car 3 times in the last year. Thankfully she was always able to respawn at the public respawn pads. And the fine for it wasn't even that big. The illegal superjump fee was twice as much, and Three had only payed for it 4 times this year! She felt as if she was doing rather well. These were pretty much the only fines she would pay for, unless you counted the fines from blowing herself up to escape awkward conversations, which she didn't.

Three was now passing on all her knowledge to Agent Eight, as she showed him how to navigate Inkopolis safely. "And this," Three said with a yawn, "is a striped bass crossing, cars legally have to stop if you stand at one, so they're pretty gosh darn useful cause those fu- feckers can't run you over ." Eight nodded, observing the striped pattern on the road, and the blinking light at either end. Three yawned again, "man, I need a coffee. C'mon Eight!" She said walking off and snapping her fingers in the air. Eight ran to catch up with her and then walked alongside her in silence.

The duo came up to a small cafe called 'Lakeside Cafe', which was written on a red sign above the door. Three pushed open the door and walked in with Eight trailing behind. "Hell-" began the cashier in a blatantly fake cheery voice.

"Black coffee, 3 shots." Three said dumping a pile of coins on the side, then she realised Eight was with her, "oh, and a hot chocolate. And a piece of that cake." She said pointing to a chocolate cake in the cabinet.

"Will that be all?" Asked the cashier. Three snorted.

"Did I say anything else?" She asked. Before the cashier could respond Three walked off and slumped into a chair in the furthest corner of the Cafe. Eight came and sat across from her gingerly, not wanting her to yell at him too. They sat in silence, Eight wriggling round awkwardly and Three with her cap over her face.

A few minutes later A waitress came over holding a tray, and placed down a black coffee in front of Three, then a slice of cake and hot chocolate in front of Eight. "Y'know," said the waitress to Three, "you ought to work on your manners Three, I hope Eight won't follow your example." Three looked up at the Waitress to see... Agent bloody Four, wearing a white dress shirt, apron and plain black jeans. Great. The last person she wanted to see this early in the morning. "I oddly find that I don't care about your opinions..." Three read Four's name tag whilst sipping some of her coffee. She spat her coffee out and began laughing and slamming her fist on the table. Four's face flushed, "What's so funny?" She demanded. Three was turning red from oxygen deprivation. "You're name is Shaniqua!" Three managed to get out between sniggers. Four looked at her, an unamused expression on her face. "Haha," she said "I have an extravagant name because my parents were cultured and into musicals, fucking hilarious." Three stopped laughing and stood up, and put her face millimetres away from Four's. "Now I know I might get fined," Three calmly said "but swear in front of Eight again and I might just have to pay it. Got that Shaniqua?" Even though she was just talking, her stance and tone gave of an eerie aura, that shook Four to their core. Four nodded, terrified. Three sat back down and went back to chuckling. Then the manager came out.

After getting kicked out of the Cafe for threatening the staff, Three and Eight got coffee from some drive thru that Three just walked up to and ordered from, and when the inkling said she needed a car to order from here she galred at him until he gave in, nervously taking her order, buckling under her death glare. "And that," said Three to Eight, "is how you skip inside queues." Eight nodded, he was learning a lot today. "Right!" Three said tossing her already empty coffee cup behind her. Eight span around, shocked that Three would litter, but was surprised when the cup landed perfectly in a bin that was around 10 feet behind them. "We gotta go grocery shopping," Three groaned, "I'll even let you push round the cart." Eight beamed in excitement, even though he had no idea what that was.

Turned out, pushing the cart was rather mundane. All Eight had to do was push around a metal basket on wheels, whilst Three wandered along, hands in pockets and occasionally threw an item in the trolley. "Ooh!" Three exclaimed seeing the deserts section coming up, "I'm gonna go grab some ice cream!" And with that she ran down to the other end of the aisle and opened a freezer. Eight sighed, then his face lit up as he got an idea. He backed up to the end of the aisle and grinned. The octoling started running and pushing the cart along the considerably long aisle, picking up more and more speed. He jumped on the back of the cart and held on whilst it sped along, towards the end of the aisle and... Three! Eight saw that the cart was gonna collide with Three and instantly jumped off and dug his heels into the ground, trying to slow the cart. Three meanwhile was debating wether to get ice cream, or the cheesecake that was on offer, oblivious to the cart speeding towards her. Eights heels slowed the cart but he could see that it wasn't going to stop in time. With no time to think, Eight hopped onto the side of the cart and tried to tip it over. It was too heavy, he scooted around to the corner and jumped at Three, transforming to his octopod form mid air in order to reduce impact. The force of him pushing off the Cart sent it spinning sideways, and it crashed into a pyramid of cans that crashed down onto it. Three had decided to just get both, and was shutting the freezer when Eight slammed into her. She fell backwards awkwardly,with the octo Eight on top of her, sprawled across her stomach. He popped back into his human form and Three found his lips brushing her cheek. His eyes widened and he rolled of of her, blushing, as Three got flustered and angry. "EIGHT!" She hollered, her face red.

After Three scolded Eight and they picked all the cans out the shopping cart, they paid for their shopping and went home. The car journey was silent as usual, and they arrived at the apartment block. "Carry this!" Three commanded, shoving a shopping back into Eight's chest. They walked to their apartment block and Three fished the key out her pocket, dropping her bag in the process. Out of it spilled tens of bags of instant coffee, and Three shovelled them back into the bag hastily as Eight watched, bemused. The inkling pushed open the door and was met by... Marie, sat in a green armchair.


	9. Eight-gets-a-phone

"How did you get in?" Three asked "and where did the armchair come from?", fairly unfazed considering someone had broken into her house. "Hiya Katie!" Marie said dodging the questions. Three growled, "I thought I told you not to call me that!" She snapped at Marie. "Yeh," Marie agreed, "but you're reactions are adorable!" She teased. Three smirked and slumped on the sofa.

"Look Marie, I know you're gay and all, but save it for Four," she said and watched as Marie's face flushed. "Actually," Three began, "we found where she worked today! Didn't we Eight?" Eight nodded, and Marie tried to stay casual, but her excitement still showed. "Oh really? Where? What time? Is her uniform cute?" Three just laughed at Marie.

"Man Marie I know you're desperate but c'mon!" Three sniggered. Marie nodded.

"You're right. I already have her phone tapped, so I'll just look at her texts and figure it out from there." The green and white inkling said casually. Three ignored this. Eight shuffled nervously, this sounded stalkerish.

"So, why are you here?" Three questioned Marie. Marie pulled a small box up from beside the chair, and chucked it to Eight, who caught it expertly. "Marina wanted me to give that to you." Marie said yawning. Eight looked over the box, it was rectangular and white, with an octopus emblem on the front in silver. "She had it custom modelled and everything." Eight lifted the lid off of the box to reveal... A black octopus logo? He spun it around and examined it. On the back was some form of lens and a light, and the front was made of glass, it was pretty lightweight and was made of metal. Three sat up in surprise, "They got him a custom modelled phone?" She asked. Marie rolled her eyes.

"Noooooo, it's obviously an octopus shaped brick," She droned, her voice laced with an unhealthy amount of sarcasm. Three stuck her tongue out at her. "Put that away it's disgusting," Marie said. Three groaned and rolled her eyes, and Marie stood up and dusted herself off. "Welp thats pretty much it, oh this is for you Kay," Three gave a death glare at the nickname, and Marie handed a paper bag to Three and walked to the door. "Ciao" she said and closed the door behind her. Three put the bag on the windowsill, uninterested in whatever Marie had given her, and walked over to Eight who was staring at his Phone in confusion.

Three spent the next few hours showing Eight how to operate his phone. At 2:00 she left him to his own devices and went to make a sandwich for eight and a coffee for herself.She walked back in holding some plates with sandwiches on, and, handing one to Eight, she sat down on the green armchair that Marie had left behind. Eight dug into his sandwich, as Three sipped her instant coffee and just watched him. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he stood, brushed crumbs off and ran over to Three. "What are you doing?" She asked. Instead of responding, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close, much to her embarrassment. He pulled his phone out with the other hand and pulled up his camera, snapping a few photos before sitting back down and resuming his sandwich. Three just smiled faintly at the octoling as he happily tucked into his sandwich.

"So, the longer you hold down," Three explained, "The higher you're character will rise, and the further you get, the faster you're character will go. The aim is to get as far as you can whilst avoiding obstacles and collecting coins, in order to get a better score." Eight nodded in understanding and clicked go. Three smiled and patted his head. She had gotten him to download an endless runner game called Inkjet Joyride, so that she could take a break from, well just so she could chill out. Three curled up in her new armchair, closed her eyes yawning, and fell asleep after a few minutes despite having many, many cups of coffee that day. Eight just sat staring at his phone, determined to impress Three, and to make her proud.

He sat there for hours, playing this game over and over until he got a a score of 123,452. Satisfied he sat up and was about to wave at Three to get her attention, when he realised she was asleep. He smiled at her sleeping figure; she was drooling slightly, and her left tentacle had suctioned to her face. Her hat was askew and she looked peaceful and gentle, so different from when she was awake. Eight smiled and took a photo of the sleeping girl, before picking her up and carrying her to her room, as he had done a few times before. He tucked her into her bed went back to the lounge. He pulled up the image of Three curled up in the armchair, and smiled, feeling like the luckiest guy in the world to have someone like her in his life, helping him and he was proud to call her his friend.

~The Next Day~

It was 8:45, and Three's alarm was blaring Calamari Inkantation. It was a limited squid sisters alarm clock she had gotten from Callie once when she complained it was creepy to see the chibi versions of her and Marie on top of the alarm clock watching her sleep. Three was a heavy sleeper, so she never really noticed, she just found that the Inkantation woke her up really well. Groaning, Three muted the alarm, and went to sleep. Twenty minutes later she woke up because of rolling off the bed, and she checked the time. "Squit!" Three exclaimed, leaping to her feet. She threw a jacket over her tank top and ran out her room. Eight was sat watching TV and eating a bowl of squid puffs. He smiled and waved, but Three just ran past and slammed open the door, "If you need me," Three said hastily, "call me!" She ran out the house slamming the door shut. Eight didn't even have time to point out that he couldn't talk.

Three ran down the stairs, too impatient to wait for the lift, and began sprinting down the street, her jacket waving behind her as she dodged other people and ranas fast as she could towards her destination. Ten minutes and several mildly illegal superjumps later, she arrived at Inkopolis Weaponry and combat Museum. She ran up the stairs to the front desk and leaned on it panting. "Hello, can I help you?" The secretary asked warily. Three held up and finger in the air, still catching her breath. After a few more seconds she straightened up and looked at the secretary. "Sup," She said, "I'm here for the interview? Meant to ask for Mike." The secretary smiled and clicked a button on the phone on her desk. "Hello," she said, "ah sir! I have a," she put her hand over the bottom of the phone for a moment, "I'm sorry, what was your name?" She asked politely. "Katylin Spletzer," Three replied, grimacing. Secretary nodded in thanks and took her hand of the receiver. "I have a Katylin Spletzer her to see you. Yes. Yes. Yes. Ok I'll send her through!" The secretary hung up and pointed Three at the door to her left. "Third door on the right."

Three nodded and set off towards 'Mike's' office.

Hesitantly she knocked on the door. "Come in," someone from inside wheezed. Three entered to see an old inkling sat behind a desk. He looked like Cap'n Cuttlefish, but had a more neatly trimmed bear and was wearing a tuxedo. He waved Three in and said, "Come on in Agent Three. Nothing to be scared of!"


	10. Four-gets-bored-and-bugs-Agent-Eight

Agent Four was bored. Cap'n Cuttlefish was currently on Octavio duty, and she loved the old guy, but holy squit! He was such a bore! Work couldn't give her any shifts today, and the Squid Sisters were in Calamari Country for Callie's Mum's birthday. She rolled off the sofa and hit her head on the ground. "Owie," she muttered as she sat up. Sighing she looked around her room for something to do. Tv? Nope. Turf War? Nah. Video games? Nope, no fun to play alone. Unless... A plotting grin appeared on her face as she picked up her switch, and shoved it in her bag, along with some extra joy cons.

Eight was having a relatively peaceful morning. After Three had rushed out the house he had only three more bowls of puffs (the box ran out) and he lay down on the sofa, re-reading some books from the metro. This was overall peaceful and relaxing. Then Four had basically kicked the door down. "Eight!" She exclaimed hands on hips, striking a superhero pose, "I come to relieve you of boredom!" With that she came in and a bemused Agent Eight watched as she set up some form of cable to a box and then to the TV. She fiddled with the remote and set the TV to HDMI. The screen was black for a second, then lit up with a colourful UI as it began blaring instrumental music. Four walked over to the sofa and threw Eight's legs off and plopped herself down beside him. "Three teach you 'bout video games yet?" Four asked. Eight shook his head and Four sighed. "I swear to our woomy overlords above, does she not think to teach you whats actually important in life?"

~10 minutes later~

"Ok," said Four, "Ready to start?" Eight nodded. He had spent the last ten minutes figuring out how to control his character. He was playing a game Called 'Super Smash Brothers Ultimate', which basically was an fighting simulator, but 2D. He had chosen the Inkling character that looked like Three, as he didn't really any of the others, and loved her design, though it wasn't completely accurate as he had noticed a few misplaced freckles and her grin wasn't so happy, it was usually more of a rictus grin, oh and her hair mantle was orange not yellow. Anyway, the game had started. Four was playing some character called Pichu, and it was fast! Catching the Make off guard, she hit him into a combo, completely demolishing his first stock. Then the tables turned. Eight caught the girl with a splatbomb, and followed threw with a series of attacks that Four just couldn't escape. He killed her, and the game continued in his favour for the rest of the game and it ended with the octoling being the victor.

"Bullsquit!" Four yelled, then covered her mouth. "Don't tell Three I said that," she said worriedly to Eight, "she'll kill me!" Eight just nodded understandingly. The duo continued playing for a few hours, with the octoling absolutely dominating. "You sure this is your first time?" Four asked after what must have been her 50th loss. Nodding, the octoling put down his controller, and stood up. He stretched and scratched his head.

"Hungry?" Four asked as his stomach rumbled. Sheepishly, he nodded, and Four stood up. "Come on," she said, "I'll buy you lunch."

Four and Eight walked down the road and talked, well, Four talked (a lot) and Eight just listened. "... and then I was like, NO! You shall not take the tower, and completely recked the guy!" She threw her arms in the air for dramatic effect. Confused, he nodded and pretended he knew what she was on about, and Four stopped outside of a restaurant called 'SquidKids'. "Here we are!" Four exclaimed triumphantly, "The best fast food joint around! They do toys in the kids meals!" Eight's eyes lit up, and the two ran in.

20 minutes and lots of moaning because of the line from Four later, the pair were sat, at a table in the far corner of the restaurant. Eight eagerly opened up th box his meal had come in. Inside, he found some form of battered meat, some chips (Three often bought those for dinner) and a bottle of orange juice. But most important of all, a toy! Excitedly, he unwrapped the bag the toy was in, and got... a crappy plastic orange squid. Four unwrapped hers and got a tacky Marie keychain. Bot of the two sat for a moment, stating at their measly prizes. Then they broke out into mad grins. "Look!" Four said, "Its Marie!" She held her keychain up for Eight to see and he grinned. Excitedly, he held up his prize, and put up Three fingers of the other hand. "Oh my god," Four breathed, "You're right! That totally does look like Three!"

The two happily ate their meals, before they began wandering back to Three's apartment. "Sooo," Four chirped, as Eight admired the little orange squid toy in his hand, "You and Three a thing yet?" She asked smirking. Eight looked at her quizzically, and she sighed. "You're way too pure, y'know that Eight?" Another even more confused expression later and Four couldn't stop giggling all the way to the apartment. However, the inkling stopped giggling when she got thrashed by Eight in any game they played.


	11. Three-gets-a-job!

Three smiled nervously and walked into the room, closing the door behind her. The old squid was sat behind a wooden desk, papers neatly stacked and stationary organized in what appeared to be height order, going from a 30 centimetre ruler, down to a small splattershot eraser. On the front of the desk was a silver nameplate that simply said "Mike" in the centre, written in a cursive font. "Don't be shy," Mike said smiling, at least, Three thought he was smiling. Much like with the Cap'n, she couldn't see under his beard so had to guess facial expressions by the movement of the rest of his face. "I won't bite," he said, as Three continued to hesitate. She sat down in the chair before his desk and sat on her hands. Mike pulled open a draw in his desk and pulled out some glasses and a handful of pieces of paper, neatly stapled together. "Now," he said putting on his glasses and squinting at the papers, "this is your CV, and, if you don't mind, i have a few questions." Three sighed, everyone always had some questions. "It says here," the old man said, shaking the papers, "that the only qualification here you have is 'Kicking some serious octo ass'?" He looked up at her. "Did you not finish school. Looking down at the floor, Three mumbled something incoherent. "Hmmm..." He hmmed, "welp," the old squid rose shakily to his feet and extended his hand towards Three. She sighed, _Here it comes_ she thought,_ the Thanks for coming! We'll call you about your application later! _Sighing she stood and took his hand. "Welcome to the team." He smiled. Three blinked a few times. "What?" She asked incredulously, sure she had heard him wrong.

"What is rude," he scolded sitting back down, "the polite word is pardon."

"Sorry," Three hurriedly replied, "Pardon? Sir?" Mike chuckled.

"I said," Mike spoke, smiling at the girl before him, "You're hired, welcome to the team!"

"But why?" Three asked still standing.

"Anybody who defeated the octarian army and can unironically put 'Kicking serious octo ass' on their CV, is more than qualified for a security job at an old museum." The old man chuckled to himself. "Thank you so much sir!" Three said, stars in their eyes, "I won't let you down!" Mike chuckled.

~10 hours later~

"...and then he gave me a security badge and told me to come in on Monday!" Three was sat on the sofa besides Eight. She hadn't been at the museum for 10 hours, but had, in typical Agent Three fashion, been caught and taken to the police station for an illegal superjump fine, and the procedure was 2 hours longer than usual because of how pre-occupied Three was with her giddy thoughts. She had gotten home, and kicked four out, tossing her switch and dock behind her. Then, promptly, she had made a coffee, drank it, made another, and pulled Eight down beside her to explain her day. "So," Three asked giddily, "what did you do today?" Eight grinned and pulled out his crappy squid toy from Squidkids. Three looked at it and then at Eight who was couldn't stop smiling. She chuckled. "You're rather happy with yourself now, aren't you?" She asked smiling, then taking a sip of her coffee. Eight nodded vigorously. Three smiled, and continued drinking her coffee while Eight mimed out his day.

~The Next day~

It was 10:00 and Three was making her first coffee of the day. She had been sleeping up until 9:30 when something in the other room went bang. Worriedly she had rushed to the other room too see... Eight. Sat at the table. Covered in soot. And what appeared to be what used to be a toaster in front of him. Turns out, that Eight was a pretty big fan of tinkering with things, and had decided to use Three's toaster as a way to get some parts. It hadn't gone to plan. Half an hour and a lot of scolding and cleaning later, the duo were sat at the table, Three with a coffee, and Eight with a hot chocolate. The octoling was staring down at his chocolate sheepishly whilst Three was slumped down in her chair sipping her coffee silently. "Movie day?" Three eventually asked. Eight looked up and grinned. He nodded and the pair moved to the sofa. Three grabbed a blanket and a remote. She had recently purchased a nifty streaming service known as "Squidflix" and her and Eight suddenly had hundreds of movies at their fingertips.

Eight loved rom-coms. The great stories, the funny lines and the characters. He could quite happily sit all day and watch them. Three hated rom-coms. The boring stories, the trying too hard to be funny lines and the bland stereotypical characters. But Eights puppy dog eyes are very persuasive. So here they were, watching a rom-com, under the blanket, whilst it rained outside. About halfway through the movie Three lost interest, and turned to look at Eight. He was staring at the TV, utterly captivated by the movie, and had completely ignored the giant bit of dried chocolate foam on his cheek. Three smirked and reached her hand up to his face and brushed it off. Suddenly wasn't so transfixed by the movie. He turned to Three and looked at her quizzically. She blushed and looked away. "What?" She snapped, "you had some hot chocolate on your face!" Eight smiled softly and flicked Three on the head. "H-hey!" She said, flustered. Eight just grinned and pulled her in for a hug. Three smiled and lay against him, a light blush dusting her cheeks, and accepted his warmth as they turned back to the movie.


	12. Splatoween

Three was not an early morning Cephalapod. In fact, if she didn't have any responsibilities for the day, it wasn't unusual for her to sepnd the entire day in bed, except for getting up to get coffee (she drank so much coffee caffeine barely affected her sleep). This was the case, until a certain Octoling came into her life. He WAS an early-riser, unless he had a late night. On October 31st, he woke up especially early. Eight yawned and stretched, scratching the back of his mantle and then straightening his blue and orange inkling print PJs. A glance at the clock told him it was 6:00. Eight Had learnt that waking up Three before 8:30 resulted in a grumpy Three. And he wasn't a fan of grumpy Three. Energetically, the Octoling hopped to his feet and went to the kitchen to pour himself a bowl of Squid Puffs and sat down cross legged on the sofa, flicking on the TV. Eight had become fascinated with the news because Pearl and Marina ran it, and so put that on to watch whilst he munched on his puffs.

A familiar jingle played and the familiar duo appeared on screen. Except, they appeared to be wearing some odd outfits. Pearl had some cat ear headbands on, along with a pink cat suit completed by paws. And Marina appeared to be wearing a cape and old fashioned attire, that primarily appeared to be blood red. Marina also had some red make up trail down from her mouth, and the small cat beside her had drawn on whiskers and a collar with a bell on. The duo grinned at each other then turned to the camera. "Yo yo yo Inkopolis!" Spoke Pearl in her almost rap-like tone.

"It's finally that time again!" Chirped Marina, barely able to contain her excitement, ehich was clearly visible. Marina turned to Pearl who nodded, and mouthed a countdown.

"Splatoween!" The duo yelled in unison turning to the camera, as Pearl threw her hands in the air and Marina clasped her hands in the way she always does. "Personally," grinned Pearl, leaning back in an eyeball bean bag, "I plan to spend this Splatoween trick or treating yo!" Pearl let her grin spread ear to ear.

"Aren't you a big old for that Pearlie?" Marina asked her smirking, resting her elbow on her DJ table, and her head in her hand.

"Nah!" The miniscule inkling responded cheerfully, "and even if i am, people will give me candy because of my fame!" At this, Pearl made a triumphant face, and Marina merely giggled and shook her head, peering fondly at the child like cat girl ahead of her.

Eight had seen more than enough to become incredibly confused. His role models and parent figures were talking about candy, whilst wearing strange outfits, one of which resembled the extinct race of cats, and the other had a lot of smeared ketchup everywhere, which was weird, as Marina was usually the cleanliest cephalopod the Octoboy knew. His curiosity was peaked to the point where he was willing to risk waking the beast. He stood up and walked tentatively to Three's bedroom door, nd nervously knocked on it. No response. He tried agin but to no avail, so just opened it and peered in. Three was strewn across her bed in an odd position, with her blanket on the floor, and her pillows were somehow under her feet. Nervously, the boy tip-toed into the room and crouched down beside her bed. He poked her. She groaned and rolled over and was now facing Eight. He poked her again. Three feebly swatted at his hand, and groaned again. A third poke and Three just grabbed Eight and pulled him up beside her, showing surprising strength for such as small inkling. Eight stiffened as the sleeping inkling pulled him close and snuggled into his chest. He then loosened up and smiled, returning the embrace, and fell asleep beside his friend.

~30 minutes later~

Something felt different about Three's plushie. It usually was quite cold, and had become less snuggly over the years. But today it felt... Warm. And extremely snuggly. Three smiled and snuggled further into (what she thought was) her plush. Then it snuggled back. Three frowned. Something was definitely off about this. The inkling groggily opened her eyes and looked up to see the sleeping face of her Octoling compadre. She Wanted to be mad. Hell, she wanted to be mad enough to kick his ass. But he looked so god damn cute! His lips parted a little as he breathed softly in his sleep, and Three's heart didn't just flutter, it flew until it couldn't breath because of the pressure. She stared at his lips. The same lips he had kissed her with just a fee months prior. A phantom sensation danced over her own as she peered at them. Would he mind? Would he even know? Slowly, she raised her head towards his, anxious as hell but feeling elated at her actions. Then he woke up, attempted to look down and slammed his forehead into Three's. "Ow!" She exclaimed falling backwards out of the embrace and clutching her forehead. The Octoling made frantic hand gestured attempting to apologise. "Ugh," the inkling groaned, clutching their head, "what do you want Eight." Eight stopped his hand gestures and pulled out a little pocket notebook, in which he wrote -What a Splatoween?-. He showed it to Three. "Hm?" She read it. "Oh that? Its just some crappy holiday where people dress up as something scary and do spooky sh- Stuff." Eight's eyes lighted up with realisation, and he scribbled more words on his notepad. It read -Us go Splatoween-. Three read this and shook her head. "Nah ah, not happening. Splatoween is for losers." Eight put on his puppy dog eyes and peered at Three. Must. Resist. Thought Three. Cannot. Celebrate. Ah fuck it.

Three sighed. "Fiiiiiine," she relented.

2 hours later the duo were walking into town to buy costumes. Eight looked around in wonder at all the Splatoween decorations in all the shop windows, and dangling from lamp posts. The two arrived at Jelfonzos after a bit of walking and went in. In stead of the usual clothing that Eight was accustomed to seeing in the shop, the walls were lined with various costume packs and mannequins wearing them. Jelfonzo greeted Three as Eight ran off excitedly to look at the costumes. He grabbed a bunch and ran off to the changing rooms. Three stood outside leaning against the wall on her phone whilst her companion played dress up. He eventually chose and came out the changing room in his regular attire and returned most of the costumes to their correct places in the store. "So," Three asked in a nonchalant tone, "watcha get?" Eight smirked and placed a finger on his lips to signify that it was a secret. A frown appeared on his face however, when he noticed that Three didn't appear to be holding a costume. He pointed at her hands. "What?" Three asked. He pointed at his bag with the costume and then at Three. Three snorted. "No." She said bluntly. Eight pouted for a moment, before donning his puppy eyes face. No. Thought Three, Must. Resist!

"Fine" said Three. Eight pumped his fist into the air and grinned like a madman at Three. Three sighed "I am weak."

Three paid for the two costumes and the pair began their trek home. Eight wondered along smiling contentedly, swaying slightly with each step and clutching his bag in front of him. They took a slight detour to stop by the 'Lakeside Cafe'. Four was the cashier, and she smiled at the two as they walked in. "Hiya!" She chirped cheerfully waving, Eight waved back enthusiastically, and Three waved once and grunted. Three ordered a coffee and hot chocolate, along with a cute ghost cookie that Eight had pestered her to purchase. They took their usual spot at the far corner of the Cafe. After a while, Four came over with a tray and laid their drinks out in front of them, smiling as she watched Eight dig into his cookie hungrily. "Jeez Three," Four said jokingly, "Don't you feed him?"

"No," Three replied seriously, "I keep him in my basement and starve him." Four looked concerned for a few seconds, before she realised that Three lived in an apartment and didn't have a basement. "Ha ha," Four said sarcastically, "Anyways, what are you two doing later?" Eight looked questioningly at Three, cookie crumbs spread around his mouth.

"Why do you wanna know?" Three asked suspiciously, sipping her coffee. Four rocked back and forth on her heels and toes. "I wanted to know if you wanted to come with me, two and one later to a haunted house?" Three nearly spat out her coffee.

"U-um, n-no thanks Four." Three responded, distressed. A wicked grin spread across Four's face. "Is Three scaaaaaaaaaaaaared?" She asked teasingly leaning closer to Three. "N-no!" Three exclaimed, "we'll b-be th-there!" Four smirked.

"Cool," she chirped, "I'll text you the deets!"

~8 hours later~

It was night, and Eight was sat on the couch. He was already in his costume, which was a vampire outfit, just like Marina's. He lost patience, and stood up, knocking on Three's door. "J-just coming!" She called out. She opened the door and peered round. Her face was bright red, and she seemed hesitant to come out. The Octoling was getting impatient to see her costume and so he grabbed her wrist. "H-hey!" She said as he pulled her out. She was wearing a pair of devil horns and a rather, revealing devil outfit, red elbow length gloves and fishnet stocking. She even had a tail! Eight blushed and stared at her. Three tried to cover up. "I know," she muttered, "I look crap..." Grabbing her hands, Eight looked into her eyes and shook his head. Three blushed at the contact, and the fact Eight didn't think she looked bad, when she thought that she very obviously did. "Y-you look n-nice too..." Three stuttered, pulling her hand out of his. Eight beamed and put his hands on his hips. "C'mon," Three said smirking at how cute he was, "let's go meet the others."

"What took you so looooooooooong?" Four moaned she was dressed as a sort of cute anime girl-esque werewolf, with paws, a headband with fluffy ears, a tail, and a cute skirt and shirt combo. Marie smirked behind her, she was dressed as a witch but also had an eye mask on, kind of like Joker's from smash, and Callie stood beside her was dressed as a ghost. At least, Three thought it was Callie, all she could see was a sheet with eye holes. Four then noticed Three's outfit as she looked her up and down, slowly smirking more and more. "Three," she purred, "that's a rather risqué outfit, isn't it?" Three blushed.

"I just grabbed one that said devil on it, I thought it would be scary." She replied. Marie sniggered, and Callie giggled from under her sheet. "Right! Let's go!" Four exclaimed, marching off. The others followed.

After a while Three got cold from... Lack of material. Eight noticed, and took of his cape. He draped it over her shoulders. Three looked up at him surprised. He grinned and she smiled softly.

After about twenty minutes, the group of five arrived at the haunted house. They stood in line, and eventually reached the front and purchased their tickets. "You guys ready?" Four asked grinning, then turned to Three specifically, "Scared?" She asked smirking.

"N-nope!" Three replied spitefully, "Good as g-gold!" The five stepped forward into the house and the door closed behind them. They were in an entrance chamber, with a dimly lit chandelier above them, and cobwebs lining the old fashioned wall paper and architecture. "This is so cool!" Four declared, looking around in awe. The lights cut out. "Hey!" Four moaned, "who turned the lights o-" she was cut off. They soon turned back on, but only Eight and Three were still in the room. Three looked around worriedly. "L-lets go n-now." She said, turning around and attempting to open the door. It was locked. She wandered back to Eight, shaking slightly and her eyes darting around. "Ok, p-plan B! F-Find another w-way out!" Eight nodded, seeing Three's distress. The duo set off down a corridor they hoped led to the way out.

As they were walking down the corridor, a crappy plastic skeleton shot out the wall and scared the squit out of Three, who screamed and wrapped her arms around Eight. She saw it was plastic and pulled her arms off Eight blushing. They continued on their way until Three stopped at a door and peered in. It was a room full of portraits. "Hey Eight," Three called over her shoulder," Come check this-" she turned around and saw Eight wasn't there, "out." She whispered, scared more than she had ever been. She ran down the corridor, desperately trying to find Eight. "Eight? E-eight!" She called out desperately. As she ran, she tripped over a crease in the rug and slammed into the ground and a fake spider fell from the ceiling and she screamed. Terrified, she stood up and ran back to the portrait room from earlier, curling up in a ball.

Eight made his way down the corridor and noticed an exit. Excitedly he turned around to show Three, but she wasn't there. He looked around for her, and the, suddenly, he heard a scream. He recognised it as Three, and ran back down the corridor. An inkling dressed as a doctor covered in blood jumped out as Eight. He punched him in the face to get him out the way and kept running along the corridor. "What the fuck man?" The doctor called after him. He eventually made it to an open door. Inside he could see the figure of Three curled up, crying. He went over and tapped her on the shoulder. She jerked away and snapped her head up to look at him. When she realised it was him she jumped into his arms, sobbing. "E-eight!" She cried, "I was so s-scared." Eight patted her on the back, and held her close. He took her hand and looked her in the eyes. She was still hysterical, so he kissed her on the forehead, which seemed to calm her down. It seemed to work.

The duo made their way to the exit, and Three hugged Eights arm the whole way home.

~Meanwhile at the haunted house~

"Where the hell are they?" Four complained, as the her and the squid sisters waited outside the mansion. Marie shrugged and Callie yawned. They waited for another hour then went back to the squid sisters apartment.


	13. Three’s-first-day

Three hated Mondays. Three hated mornings. So when she woke up on Monday morning from Calamari Inkantation blaring in her ear at 6 am to make sure she wasn't late to work on her first day, she wasn't exactly jumping up and down with joy. Groaning, Three slammed her fist down on her snooze button and proceeded to roll off her bed. Literally. Groaning, She unravelled from her blanket burrito, pushed herself up off the floor, and rose to her feet groggily, peeling the left tentacle off her face, where it had, as usual, suctioned itself. The inkling made her way out of her room, and towards the kitchen to make a coffee. And then she made another few and put them in thermal flasks. And made another cup as she had drunk her first whilst making the others.

~20 minutes of getting dressed and making toast later~

"Eight. Eight. Eight. Eight." Three repeated, poking the sleeping Octoling in the side between every "Eight." The Octoling rolled over to face her and slowly opened his eyes and yawned. Three gained a slight pink hue on her cheeks. Dang, she thought, Eight is hella cute when he yawns. Eight looked up and smiled at Three. "I'm going to go out for work now, ok? If you need me, text me. I left some food in the fridge for lunch and some money on the side FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY! You're not to answer the door to anyone, and you are to not leave the apartment unless your life depends on it. Got it?" Eight snorted, and Three looked at him, pissed off. "What's so funny?" Three demanded. Eight reached over to the coffee table and picked up a small notepad and pencil. He scribbled something on it and showed it to Three. It simply read "Cute you Concerned". Eight hadn't exactly got the hang of writing the inkling language yet, despite being able to understand it most of the time, so he was still learning from Marina, because Three had told her she was, "too lazy to deal with that crap". Nonetheless, it was sufficient enough to make Three turn red and acquire a stutter. "Sh-shut up!" She said turning away from Eight, who smirked.

And so off Three set, with a satchel full of flasks of coffee, a Splattershot, and a portable phone battery and charger. She put in her earphones, and put on some angsty teen music she should have grown out of years ago, but kept listening to because it pissed off her mother. The inkling girl walked down the streets, hands in hoodie pockets, slouched over and made their way towards the museum, looking like some stroppy teen or delinquent. Soon, the museum came into view and Three lowered her hood. She walked up the stairs, pulling out her earphones, and found some middle age, slightly overweight inkling dude with big purple bags under his eyes in a security uniform tapping away on his phone. He looked up at the sound of footsteps and saw Three stood awkwardly at the door. "You the new recruit?" He asked, looking Three up and down. Not quite ready to converse with him yet due to his off-putting demeanour, Three simply nodded. The security guard grunted in acknowledgment and turned around to face the desk. He leaned over it and grabbed a security uniform and belt with a slot for a splattershot, then proceeded to toss them at Three, who caught the pair of items instinctively. "Put that on," he ordered, in a monotone voice, "Then I'll show you the basics, then you can start your shift and leave me the hell alone."

20 minutes later, after clocking in by writing her shift start time in the book at the front desk, Three was being frogmarched around with the head of security , Tony, in a shirt thats sleeves covered her hands, and a belt that only just fit when the metal clip was through the last hole. She also had been given a hat that was far too big, but she opted not to wear it. "This," Tony said, stopping abruptly, which Three had to do as well to avoid walking into him. "Is your station." The head of security told Three. "You sit on that chair," he pointed to a small chair on his right, "make sure nobody vandalises," he waved his hand around at the different exhibits lazily, "and make sure nobody breaks the rules." He went back on his phone, and pointed vaguely at a rule list above her chair. "If you need me," Tony e walk off absorbed with whatever was on his phone, "I'll be in the security office watching the CCTV." Three peered up at the rules. They were all fairly standard, no eating, no drinking, no weapons etc. Three perched herself on the end of the chair, opened her first flask of coffee, sipped it and waited for the museum to open.

"It was so boring! Next to nobody did anything except stare at musty old war exhibits and I didn't even get to punch anyone who did break the rules because they were then very, agh whats the fricking word? Compliant! They were compliant! Bloomin' stopped what ever it was they were doing that was wrong the pricks! I thought security would be more exciting!" Three complained to Eight. It had been 9 hours since Three had left that morning, and only a few minutes since she had comeback. So far, all she had done was complain. Not that Eight cared. Three could talk about the clothing industry economics of south west calamari country and Eight would be interested. After all, it was Three, and anything she said was fascinating to Eight. Three pulled her legs up onto the sofa, and sat in a cross-legged position, arms folded, with a pissed off expression on her face. Eight stared at her expression and smirked. This didn't, however, go unnoticed by Three, who glared at Eight with angry eyes. "What?" She snapped, snarling. Eight just held his hands up and Three turned away grumbling. "Agh!" Three suddenly cried out grabbing her mantle in anger. "I need to cool off! I'm going to go play some ranked!" Three jumped to her feet, and grabbed a roller from by the door. "Don't do anything dumb while I'm gone." She said, and was about to leave when she felt Eight tap her lightly on the shoulder. She spun around to see Eight with stars in his eyes, clutching onto his Octobrush. Eight had recently been watching lots of ranked matches on television that day, and had gotten fairly desperate to try it out, but, not wanting to disobey Three and make her angry, he had stayed in the house. Three looked him up and down angrily, but seeing his hopeful expression, she justsighed, and a small smile donned her faces. "C'mon then dweeb." She said, "we'll do some turf war i guess..." Eight pumped his fist into the air and, beaming, followed Three out of the apartment.

Around a half hour later, the pair were on Blackbelly skatepark, ready to play a game of turf war. "Ready?" Three asked, turning to Eight. He grinned and nodded vigorously. He's gonna get slaughtered. thought Three sadly. The horn rang across the stage signifying the game start, and Three swung her roller vertically and followed along the ink trail along. Her play style was very aggressive, so her plan was simple. Rush the opposition. Kill the opposition. Simple. She continued to swing her roller and follow the ink trail, until she reached the tower. Inking it up, she swam up the wall to the top. Three peered around trying to spot the enemy, and her eyes fell on an unfortunate inkling boy who was inking up the turf around the enemy teams spawn. She grinned her slightly askew rictus grin, and leapt off the tower, towards the enemy. "HA HA!" She hollered as she raised her roller and flew towards the unfortunate enemy. He swivelled around and barely had time to register the crazy Agent flying towards him. Three slammed her roller down on his cranium, reducing him to a mere puddle of ink, and grinned like a mad man. "Now that." Panted Three "Was fun!"

Eight watched Three as she swam off, and raised his brush. As his two team mates ran off to claim the center, Eight stayed behind and began work on covering their spawn. He wasn't eager to get into conflict straight away. He was bit rusty, having not used an ink weapon since defeating TarTars mega statue of death, so it was probably best he took it easy for a few matches until he got his mojo back. It was rather monotonous, but Eight still was thrilled to finally be trying out some traditional inkling sports! He eagerly ran around the spawn area, swiping his brush from side to side. Fairly soon he was done, and he looked around proudly, when he suddenly noticed a spot of the opposing teams colour, just at the edge of the area. Confused, he swam over. Then an enemy jumped out the ink.

Three was having a blast. For the last two minutes she had been splatting the enemy team. She slammed her roller down on an enemy as they tried to swim past Three towards the center. Three briefly glanced at the big screen that showed an overview of the match. And then she saw that someone had got past her. A thin trail of ink led back to her teams spawn. Some bugger must have managed to sneak past her. She started checking for any team mates frequencies, and managed to find Eight's. She smirked and prepared to superjump when, suddenly, she had an idea.

Eight reacted almost instantly, rolling out the way of the ink that had already been shot out of the enemies weapon, which appeared to be Kensa Splattershot pro. The enemy quickly adjusted and repositioned his aim. Eight had rolled to far away from the opposing player to be able to hit him with his brush, and so had to adopt a strategy of weaving around so he could get close again. It seemed to work, until the enemy was right in front of Eight. The inkling boy grinned and activated his booyah bomb. Eight had seen enough on the TV to know what that thing was, and he began to swim away, back up the slopes. He wasn't fast enough. The enemy threw the booyah bomb in front of Eight who tried to jump back so he could avoid it, and instead ended up slipping down the slope in his humanoid form. He tumbled down and landed at the smirking enemies feet. To Eight's left was his brush that had slid out of his grasp. He stretched out his hand to it and... The opposing inkling stamped on his hand. Hard. Gasping, Eight tried to pull his hand free from under the boy's boot, but to no avail. A wicked grin on his face, the boy leaned close to Eight. "Things like you," he spat, "don't belong here in inkopolis." Eight winced. "Nobody wants you here. So do everyone a favour, and go back to whatever hell hole you crawled out from." The boy spat on Eight who shrank back into the ground. Eight's antagoniser stood upright and aimed his gun back at the Octoling. Then 2 giant rings of Eights colour encircled the pair. Three came crashing down to earth and caused an explosion of ink that wiped out the enemy instantly. Grinning she stood up and slung her roller over her shoulder as the whistle went to signify the end of the match. She watched the screen. 82.1% - 14.2%. "Easy." She muttered under her breath. She swivelled on her heel, expecting to see a rejoicing octoling behind her, and instead... She found a distraught Eight, hunched over clutching his hand, as tears began forming in the corners of his eyes.


	14. Patrol

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Three hated long shifts. Three hated being bored. Annoyingly, both of these things were combined as she sat on a chair in the museum exhibit hall, staring at the clock, just waiting for it to tick tock its way past the little 12 so that it would be 6 and she could finally go home. The inkling had been there since 10 am and just wanted to go home desperately at this point, as the shift was dragging out. Three's first ever shift had gone by super slowly in her eyes, but the past week's load of shifts... They were practically torture. The usual upside of having a mundane job is lots and lots of time to think. Sadly, Agent Three's thoughts weren't exactly jovial, since all that was on her mind was her companion and roommate: Agent Eight. Ever since the two of them had gone to play turf war last week, he had been acting, for lack of a better set of words, sad and depressed, and on top of that he wouldn't tell Three why, so all week she had been stuck trying to get info out of him or figure it out herself.

The final tock ticked as the large hand of the clock clunked to point to 12. Three rose to her feet, and passed another baggy eyed, sunken face employee who was taking the late shift. They nodded to Three as she passed by them. The Agent, in typical Three fashion, ignored the greeting, and kept walking onwards to the changing room. The low buzz of the fluorescent lighting and the ruffling of clothes was all that could be heard as she got changed, her mind still lingering on Eight, which it continued to do as she clocked out and began her trek home. She stared at the ground as she walked, silently trudging along, thinking, worrying. Her train of thought wasn't interrupted as her phone began blaring out some edgy teen song by some random, self proclaimed, "deep" artist. She ignored it, too absorbed in her own mind to care. It rang again, and, scowling, the inkling pulled it out of her pocket and glared at the screen. It merely read "Cap'n". Three sighed, accepted the call and put the phone to her ear.

The apartment door slammed open, and a groggy Agent Eight looked up from his position lying down on the couch to see Three with an annoyed expression on her face. he stormed past him and went into her bedroom, only to come out holding her hero uniform and the outfit Eight wore on the metro. She tossed it to the half awake Eight and barked: "Put it on. We're on patrol." She then stomped back into her room and swung the door shut once more.

20 minuted later the duo popped through the grate into Octo Canyon, and found an eager Cap'n waiting for the duo. The old inkling trundled over to the pair and shook their hands vigorously. "Thank you both for coming" he wheezed, "I know Eight as only been in Inkopolis for a month and is still settling, but I believe that we cannot go lax on our patrols, else the octarian menace take over once more!" Eight rubbed his eyes and nodded tiredly, which caused the Cap'n to become suspicious. "Are you alright my boy?" The old captain questioned, to which Eight just stuck a fake smile on his face and nodded with his non-existent enthusiasm. Cuttlefish turned to Three who just shook their head. "Alright then" the Cap'n rasped, "Good luck Agents!" And with that, he sent them off with a salute and a set of weapons.

Three strode on ahead of Eight, scanning the area for potential threats and hiding spaces for any enemies or threats, only too aware of octarian ambu-

Eight was bored. Eight was bored and sad. Eight was bored and sad and pondering life. In short, Eight wasn't having the greatest week of his 3 month old life (in memory). Ever since, the incident he had been scared to leave his home. Scared to venture out. Scared of other people, and he had been going the words that inkling said over and over. The boy's snarling face as he said "Nobody wants you here. So do everyone a favour, and go back to whatever hell hole you crawled out from." echoed through his mind. He sighed. Was it true? Did people not want him in Inkopolis? Did three actually even care? Or was she just doing this because she felt it was part of her duty as an agent? The octoling sighed. And then a posse of opposing octarians and octolings jumped out from behind a set of crates and landed in front of them.

"Well shit." Thought Agent Three as she slowly rotated taking in the fact that they were surrounded and outnumbered. An octoling girl with a mantle the deepest shade of red and giant white, jagged scar down her face stepped forward, smiling maliciously, eyes glinting menacingly. No goggles donned the cephalopod's face, leaving no room to believe she was being controlled. "Well, well, well." she almost sang, "What do we have here?" Her voice sounded almost, posh. As if she had grown up in some rich family, yet had a rough edge to it, which made the words almost seem to bite. She looked at Three, taking in her appearance and combat stance, then smirked. "Well girls," the octoling called out to the surrounding octotolings, "It would appear that our victim is none other than Agent Three!" She spread her arms out dramatically and grinned at Three, then her brow furrowed as she noticed Eight behind her, glancing around tentatively. A confused look donned her face and she called out, "Seth? What the hell are you doing with her?" Eight looked at her confusedly. Three took this opportunity to speak up. "Who's Seth?" she asked defensively, glaring at the crimson haired octoling. She turned her gaze back to Three and squinted. "The octoling standing behind you is Seth you nimrod." She spat. Her tone of voice had gone from playful to aggressive in a matter of seconds. Three blinked and turned so that she could see Eight out of the corner of her eye. The male shook his head. "Look crazy lady," Three said turning back to the seemingly head octoling.

"My name," she spat, "is Mara."

Three rolled her eyes, "Okay then, look Mara," she put as much mockery into the word Mara as possible, "I think that you've got the wrong octo. This is Agent Eight." Mara looked at Eight in disbelief. "You joined them?" she spat. Eight winced from the venom in her tone. Three stepped in front of Eight and glared at the scowling octoling before her. "Hey!" she exclaimed, "Back the hell off, you pompous Redhead". Mara sneered.

"Kill her," she stated simply, "And bring Seth to me. Alive."

Hello! I apologise for taking four months to upload a new chapter

The first two months I was being lazy as I myself was "Learning to love" for the first time myself

And then my iPad broke and I was unable to write. But it's out now

And I plan on releasing 1-2 chapters a month from now on :3

~Birb


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